Despite Merck & Co.’s claims that Gardasil is safe, stories abound over devastating reactions to the three-shot inoculations that claim to prevent some—not all—types of the human Papillomavirus (HPV).
For instance, after just one injection a 13-year-old girl was diagnosed with Acute Pancreatitis, spent nearly 100 days in the hospital, and underwent two surgeries to remove Pseudocysts. Her family filed a petition for vaccine compensation seeking damages from the government.
A group of Australian researchers found young women there who received the drug t were five to 20 times likelier to suffer rare and severe allergic reactions. In the U.S., a 20-year-old woman suffered a stroke after receiving a second Gardasil injection. Two women overseas died after receiving their Gardasil injections and those deaths followed the deaths of three other young women who died in the U.S. days after Gardasil was administered.
A 14-year-old girl experienced debilitating headaches, fainting spells, and arthritis-like stiffness and became so dizzy she could barely walk, was hospitalized, missed nearly one month of school, and suffered a seizure. Another 13-year-old began showing signs of a degenerative muscle disease after her third Gardasil injection; she is almost completely paralyzed.
Now, the Rocky Mountain News is reporting about a 16-year-old girl who is sick all the time with constant exhaustion and nausea; hair falling out in clumps, ongoing episodes of passing out, numbness, and paralysis; dangerously low blood pressure; and severe back spasms that cause her to stop breathing. The family is convinced the reactions are a result of Gardasil vaccinations, which in her case, were given with a meningitis vaccine.
Although industry claims the Gardasil-meningitis combination is safe, and although the combination is routinely administered, Rocky Mountain News points out that Gardasil has never been clinically tested in this combination. As a matter-of-fact, the meningitis vaccine was not available when clinical testing for Gardasil was first being conducted, so the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to test it after licensure was granted said Neal Halsey, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Those clinical results remain pending.
Worse, says Rocky Mountain News, according to the National Vaccine Information Center, Gardasil reactions increase when given with the meningitis vaccine. Also, Halsey reported that general guidelines allow for two or three inactivated vaccines—and Gardasil and the meningitis vaccinations fall into this category—to be administered conjunctively without an expectation of increased adverse events.
Merck and Co.’s Gardasil was licensed in 2006 by the FDA and both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Merck say it is safe; however, as of late summer, the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) logged 10,326 reports of reactions to Gardasil, according to the CDC, including reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder that causes muscle weakness, blood clots, and death.
Gardasil accounted for about 20 percent of reactions reported to VAERS in 2007-2008 according to Barbara Loe Fisher, co- founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center. “To say that … 10,000 reports of reactions, injuries, 30 deaths is all a coincidence is simply not scientifically responsible,” Fisher told the Rocky Mountain News. “You have perfectly healthy girls go in and get this shot and then suffer a pattern, a very clear pattern of injury, and some of them are dying. This is not acceptable.” Side effects reported involve brain inflammation; immune system dysfunction; tingling and numbness in the hands, feet and legs; severe headaches; strokes; joint pain; muscle weakness; seizures; and memory loss Fisher said.
The Vue Weekly points out that many believe over-immunization is a major contributor to the rise in autoimmune disease and parents are often pressured to immunize. But, in the case of Gardasil, perhaps avoiding the vaccine might not be so irresponsible given that, as The Vue pointed out, “the research was done by those who stand to gain magnificently” and the drug has been the focus of “an extensive public relations campaign” but “has been subjected to little independent scientific review.”
Of note, the Vue points out that the Nobel Prize Committee—which awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine to German scientist Harald zur Hauser for his work linking HPV to cervical cancer—is facing investigation over bribery allegations for taking payments from the drug company that own the patents and collects royalties on both—U.S. and overseas—HPV vaccines. Also, said the Vue, an FDA document stated that, “identifying and typing HPV infection does not bear a direct relationship to stratification of the risk for cervical cancer. Most acute infections caused by HPV are self-limiting. It is the persistent HPV infection that may act as a tumor promoter in cancer induction … most infections are short-lived and not associated with cervical cancer.” Perhaps the vaccine is not so critical after-all.
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November 18th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
THis article says it all.I have two granddaughters 19 and 13,There mother had cancer and was given this….both girls have been ill since given the shot.Shauna, 13 is having liver problems, pain, very sick….Brittany 19 the same….this is horrible How could this product be released.
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:28 am
My daughter, Victoria, has been ill since February 2008. She had her first Gardasil vaccination in November 2007. Her second vaccination was in the beginning of February 2008. Immediately after her second vaccination, Victoria experienced severe diarrhea, vomiting and was nauseous for about eight weeks. She had blood work done many times and the pediatrician thought she had a virus. On March 31, 2008, she had her first seizure. My daughter has treated with many neurologists, all of whom have not related her seizures to Gardasil. Meanwhile, there are quite a few hundred people that I have found over the internet through my numerous postings and through Erin Brockovich, and their daughters are all experiencing the same symptoms, which occurred after the Gardasil vaccination. We have actually formed a group and share our daughters’ stories, symptoms and information. My daughter has had CT scans, MRI’s, MRA’s, EEG’s, blood work and was hospitalized at an epilepsy center in the video EEG monitoring unit for two separate weeks in May 2008 and September 2008. A follow-up MRI was performed and a spinal tap was recently attempted, but was unsuccessful. Victoria later underwent a lumbar puncture with fluoroscopy. She was put on many different seizure medications. After the normal EEG results, she was taken off all medications. Her SED rate has always been high and she does have protein in her urine, but doctors do not seem concerned. I was told that her red blood are small, but this apparently is not concerning either. She is also slightly anemic.
My daughter has been seen by several neurologists, a psychiatrist, psychologist, several neuropsychologists, an immunologist, several infectious disease doctors, and also treated a at Wellness Center for a period of time. Wellness Center physicians believe that my daughter may have Lyme disease that was dormant until she was given the Gardasil vaccine. Infectious disease doctors differ. Which doctors are correct? I have no idea.
My daughter currently experiences the following symptoms: non-epileptic seizures, migraines, fainting, various tremors, twitches and numbness, intermittent leg paralysis and facial paralysis, tingling, staring or blank episodes, eye pain, joint pain, neck pain, back pain, memory loss, confusion, brain fog, regression, mood swings and chronic fatigue. She continues to have bouts of nausea and diarrhea. She has not been in school since April 2008. My daughter can never be left home alone. She can’t go to school, go out with her friends or work or has little “normalcy” in her life. She has very few good days and always says she doesn’t feel good.
I do not know which way to turn for help. We have seen so many doctors and I can’t seem to find anyone willing to help my daughter. There are so many other young girls who have the same exact symptoms as my daughter and the one thing that all of the girls seem to have in common is the Gardasil vaccination.
There are no “traditional medical doctors” who relate my daughter’s symptoms to Gardasil as I am told “there is not enough information available” about the vaccine and doctors believe it to be “safe” . Most recently, a neurologist informed that he does believe that my daughter’s symptoms were brought on by the vaccine, just not in a way that he could test or prove.
The vaccine has been available for less than three years. Meanwhile, there are some doctors who are making the correlation between Gardasil and many of the girls’ symptoms. However, the only doctors I know of right now are in California and Kansas. Other doctors are willing to “try” treatment, most of which is “homeopathic” in nature and extremely costly. Once again, I must reiterate that there are so many other young girls experiencing negative symptoms.
Each night, I check on my daughter many times in the middle of the night to make sure she is still breathing (like we ALL did when they were babies). I have increased security in my home in that I have a chime on her bedroom door so that each time she opens the door, I know she has walked out of her room. I had a deadbolt put on the front door of our home with a key that can be removed from the inside. I never leave the key in the door for fear that Victoria will be confused after a seizure or and leave our home. (This has happened several times and she has been missing). When she is in the shower, I have to either stand outside the door and/or keep asking her “are you okay?”
Each day, I cry and wonder if Victoria will be next one to die from adverse reactions to Gardasil.
We are in desperate need of medical treatment for my daughter. I have run out of ideas, doctors to treat with and finances have dwindled. I do not know which direction to turn. Any thoughts are most appreciated, especially from the medical community.
The National Vaccine Information Center is in the process of circulating a petition to have Gardasil investigated by the government. There are more than 16,000 reported cases of adverse effects from the vaccine which have been reported to the NVIC (many of the adverse effects are extremely serious) and approximately 38 deaths have been reported.
Please feel free to forward this information.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Jodi Speakman
(267) 939-0591
Jodispeaks@aol.com
P.S. Victoria is one of five girls mentioned on the NVIC website. Victoria’s story appeared on the front page of the Philadelphia Weekly Newspaper in June 2009 and also mentioned on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer in August 2009. A Fox news story recently aired as well.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/14/investigate-gardasil-vaccine-risks-now
http://www.nvic.org/Vaccines-and-Diseases/hpv.aspx
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/posted.php?id=547704835&share_id=76759221290#s76759221290